TDP Delhi yatra a joke: KCR

Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday described as the joke of the millennium the TDP Telangana leaders’ Delhi yatra to organise a dharna at Jantar Mantar to press for formation of Telangana state.

Replying to a question at a news conference here, the TRS chief said: “Everyone knows what these leaders did while on the journey to Delhi.” He, however, did not elaborate on what they did.

Rao said Chandrababu Naidu did not have the guts to flag off the special train in which TDP leaders left for Delhi. “If he continues with this attitude, he would lose on both the counts,” Rao said.

Asked for his reaction to the agitation by lawyers in Andhra region for a high court bench between Vijayawada and Guntur, he said he sympathised with their demand but suggested that they should seek a separate state rather than a bench. “If you press for a separate state, you would not only get a High Court but also a new capital city. The people would benefit as land prices would go up,” he said.

He found fault with chief minister K Rosaiah for not leading an all-party delegation to Delhi seeking an amendment to the presidential order to make Hyderabad part of Zone VI instead of keeping it as a free zone. “He went to Delhi several times. Yet he does not find time to take a delegation which only shows how much he honours the resolution passed by the state Assembly to make Hyderabad part of Zone VI,” he said and warned the government of an agitation if it continued to delay it any further.

The TRS chief demanded early execution of the Manoharabad-Kottapalli railway line via Gajwel, Siddipet, Sircilla and Jagtial.

The works got delayed since the state had not paid its share of money, he alleged.